Journal box dust guards



May 28, 1957 L E, HOYER 2,793,885

JOURNAL BOX DUST GUARDS Filed July 12. 1954 'N v Invenzor k; LleweH/n f. jf'o'erA lf2/mm Mw/ United States Patent() JOURNAL BOX DUST GUARDS Llewellyn E. Hoyer, Wyckoif, N. J., assignor to Americ'an Brake Shoe Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application July 12, 1954, Serial No. 442,788

2 Claims. (Cl. 286-6) This invention relates to dust guards for railway journal boxes.

In mounting the journal box on the journal of a railway car wheel, it is customary to include a dust guard in the box for engaging about the journal and sealing off the side of the box next to the wheel. Such dust guards are so formed as to t around the periphery of the journal, and the customary assembly procedure is to pass the journal through the dust guard and into the journal box.

It has been found advantageous to construct dust guards of the foregoing kind with a pad of resilient material which is formed with an opening in the medial portion thereof through which the journal is to be passed to t therein. A pad of this nature assures a tight seal between the dust guard and the car axle or' journal, and the objects of the present invention are to so construct a dust guard comprising a resilient pad of the foregoing kind as to assure that the portion of the pad which is to fit tightly about the journal is not damaged during the course of locating the journal box and the assembled dust guard on the journal; to support a resilient dust guard pad of the foregoing kind between a pair of relatively rigid plates in such a manner as to assure that the plates are not easily torn away from the pad; to effectively seal off the end of the journal box next to the wheel; to materially simplify the construction of dust guards for railway journal boxes; to assure that the aforesaid pad is not easily torn internally as a result of relative movements between the journal and the journal box; and to permit freedom of relative movement between the journal and journal box.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims and are illustrated in the accompanying drawing which, by way of illustration, shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the principle thereof and what I now consider to be the best mode in which I have contemplated applying that principle. Other embodiments of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a front elevation of a dust guard constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the dust guard shown in Fig. l and showing the manner in which the dust guard is mounted in the journal box in operative engagement with the railway journal; and

Fig. 3 is a detail View showing the relation of certain parts during assembling the dust guard on the journal.

The present invention is illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 as embodied in a substantially horseshoe-shaped dust guard adapted to be mounted in a conventional journal box JB at the end thereof which is to be disposed opposite the car wheel. The dust guard has a fiat top and side edges and the bottom is rounded to afford a bight portion Patented May 28, 1957 2 which is complementary to the round bottom of the box JB. A relatively narrow retaining slot DS is formed about the inside Wall of the journal box at the end thereof disposed toward the car wheel and is complementary to the outline of the dust guard to enable the dust guard to be compactly located therein. This slot DS is rounded in the portion thereof at the bottom of the box so that the big'nt portion of the guard may be securely retained therein as will be described in detail hereinbelow.

The dust guard 10 includes a substantially horseshoeshaped resilient dust guard pad 11 which is impervious to the passage of fluids therethrough. The pad 11 in the present instance consists of closed cell, sponge-like rubber resistant to lubricating oils or like lubricants used to lubricate the journal and the journal bearing for the car Wheel, and of which Neoprene rubber is an example. The pad 1l is formed in the medial portion thereof with a circular opening 12 which enables the pad 11 to t tightly about an annular dust guard seat 15 formed on the portion of the journal l which is to extend into the journal box. To enable an efficient t of the dust guard pad about the seat 15, the opening 12 in the pad 11 is of appreciably less diameter than the diameter of the dust guard seat. The way in which the pad 11 is mounted on the seat 15 without damage to the portion of the pad which engages the dust guard seat will be described below.

The pad 11 is interposed between a pair of substantially horseshoe-shaped plates 20 and 21 configured similar in outline to the pad 11 and which are centered on the opposite sides thereof. These two plates are preferably made of vulcanized ber or so-called berboa-rd, and and the outside dimensions of the plates 20 and 21 bordering the outer peripheral edge of the pad 11 are less in every direction than the pad 11 so that an exposed margin 11M of the pad 11 unattached to either plate 20 or 21 projects beyond the outside edges 20E and'21E of these two plates. In fastening the plates 20 and 21 to the opposite sides of the pad 11, the plates are rst centered on the pad 1l and staples 25 are pressed through each plate and into the pad to independently attach each plate to the pad. The staples 25 are driven through the outside face of one plate, and the ends 25E of the staples passing into the pad 11 encounter the inside face of the opposite plate and flare outwardly as shown in Fig. 2. Such outward flaring of the staples assures that the plates 20 and 21 are not easily separated or torn from the pad 11.

The plate 20 is referred to in the art as the seal plate, since this plate as shown in Fig. 2 is on the side of the dust guard pad next to the wheel, which is the side to be sealed against the entrance of dust into the journal box. The plate 21 is referred to in the art as the retainer plate and is attached to the pad 11 on the side thereof that is disposed toward the lid of the journal box (not shown). The medial portions of the two side plates 20 and 21 co1'- responding to the medial portion of the pad 11 are each formed with a circular opening, 20A and 21A having diameters D-1 and D-Z respectively, disposed about the opening 12 in the pad 11 so as to be concentric therewith as shown in Fig. 2. The two openings 20A and 21A are each larger in diameter than the opening 12, and this provides an annular portion 11F at the medial portion of the pad 11 surrounding the opening 12 therein which is unattached to either of the plates 2t) and 21. Such unattached annular portion of the pad lies between the two plates 20 and 21, and when the dust guard is mounted on the journal this portion of the pad 11 will be maintained under compression about the dust guard seat 15 preciated that the arrangement of the dust guard is such that the openings in the medial portions of the pad 11, the plate 20 and the plate 21 in that order are progressively larger for a purpose which will now be described.

The dust guard 10 is to be retained in the slot DS formed in the end of the journal box disposed opposite the car wheel with a continuous portion of the outer margin of the pad 11 disposed entirely in the slot DS. This slot is open at the top of the journal box 1B and is closed at the bottom where the journal box is rounded to permit the dust guard to be mounted therein. The over-all thickness of the dust guard 1t) between the outer faces of the side plates is slightly larger than the corresponding dimension of the dust guard slot DS, and in mounting the dust guard 10 in the journal box, the two plates 20 and 21 are pressed in toward one another so as to reduce the thickness of the dust guard to that of the slot DS. The two plates 20 and 21 and the pad 11 compressed therebetween are then forced down through the slot DS from the open top thereof to dispose at least a portion of the bight of the pad 11 and the two side plates entirely within the lower closed part of the slot DS at the bottom of the journal box with the side marginal portions of the dust guard gripped between the side walls of the slot DS. The pad 11 thus being under compression presses the side plates against the walls of the slot DS, and the free or exposed outer marginal part 11M of the pad 11 disposed entirely within the dust guard slot DS flares outwardly therein so as to tend to press against the sides of the slot DS beyond the outer edges 20E and 21E of the side plates as shown in Fig. 2. This arrangement provides an effective packing in the dust guard slot. It is also important to point out that the bight portion of the dust guard normally is spaced from the bottom wall of the slot DS, and this permits freedom of relative movement between the journal and the journal box without damage to the dust guard 10 as can be appreciated from Fig. 2. It will also be appreciated that the independent attachment of the two plates 20 and 21 to the pad 11 enables these plates to yield one independently of the other.

The dust guard pad 11 is dimensioned to t relatively tightly about the dust guard seat 15, and in mounting the journal box and assembled dust guard on the journal the dust pad is forced axially along the seat in the direction of the car wheel. While thus mounting the journal box in the journal, the reduced diameter of the opening 12 in the pad 11 relative to the seat 15 makes it necessary to tilt the journal box back and forth in such a manner that radial and shearing forces are set up in the peripheral portion 11F of the dust guard pad as the latter is being pressed on to the dust guard seat 15 in the direction of the wheel as indicated by the arrow in Fig. 3. The increased diameter D-Z of the opening 21A in the retainer plate relative to the diameter D-1 for the Iopening A in the seal plate permits the annular portion 11F of the dust guard pad to yield or bend on the seat 15 in the direction of the retainer plate as shown in Fig. 3, and in this manner shearing or tearing of the pad 11 is prevented. After the journal box has been thus mounted on the journal, the portion 111 of the dust guard pad about the seat 15 will be compressed but slightly, and for purposes of clarity such has not been shown in Fig. 2.

Thus, while I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that this is capable of variation and modication.

I claim:

1. In a journal box of the kind described having a slot for receiving a dust guard, a dust guard inserted in said slot and comprising a resilient oil resistant rubber pad having an opening formed in the medial portion thereof enabling the dust guard to be mounted about the peripheral portion of the journal allocated as a seat for the dust guard, a rigid seal plate and a rigid retainer plate each independently and directly attached to said pad on either side thereof and each being formed in the medial portion thereof with an opening corresponding to but being of larger diameter than said opening in said pad, said opening in the retainer plate being of larger diameter than the opening in the seal plate, the outside dimensions of said plates being less in every direction than the outside dimensions of said pad so as to provide a free outer continuous marginal portion of the pad projecting outwardly beyond the outer edges of and unattached to said plates, and the normal thickness of the dust guard between the outside faces of the two plates when free of the dust guard slot being greater than the width of the dust guard slot so that when the dust guard is inserted in said slot as aforesaid the pad is under compression in the areas thereof within said slot and coextensive with said plates, forcing said plates outwardly against the walls of the dust guard slot in tight seal engagement therewith and expanding said unattached free outer marginal portion of the pad tightly between the walls of the slot to effectively pack peripherally the dust guard slot.

2. in a journal box of the kind described having a slot adjacent one end for receiving a dust guard, a dust guard inserted in said slot and comprising a closed-cell oil resistant sponge rubber pad having a circular opening formed in the medial portion thereof to enable the dust guard to be mounted about the peripheral portion of the journal allocated as a seat for the dust guard, relatively rigid fberboard plates each independently attached directly to said pad on either side thereof and each being formed in the medial portion thereof with a circular opening corresponding to but of larger diameter than the opening in said pad to expose an annular portion of the pad about the opening therein for tightly engaging the journal dust guard seat, the opening in one such plate being of larger diameter than the opening in the other such plate to enable said annular portion of the pad to flow to facilitate pressing of the dust guard on to said journal dust guard seat, the outside dimensions of said plates being less in every direction than the outside dimensions of said pad so as to provide a free outer continuous marginal portion of the pad projecting outwardly beyond the outer edges of and unattached to said plates, and the normal thickness of the dust guard between the outside faces of the two plates when the dust guard is free of the dust guard slot being greater than the width of the dust guard slot so that the areas of the pad disposed within the slot and coextensive with said plates are under compression in said dust guard slot, forcing said plates outwardly against the walls of the dust guard slot in tight seal engagement therewith and expanding said unattached outer marginal portion of the pad tightly between the walls of the slot outwardly of the outer edges of the plates to effectively pack peripherally the dust guard slot.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 708,491 Patten Sept. 2, 1902 1,516,197 Lynch et al. Nov. 18, 1924 2,151,410 Richter Mar. 21, 1939 2,152,937 Vigne et al Apr. 4, 1939 2,165,102 Kimball July 4, 1939 2,211,189 Kriegbaum Aug. 20, 1940 

